The invention relates generally to computer tracking systems and, more particularly, to an integrated production tracking and pay rate calculation system.
In a production center, such as a dental laboratory, many factors may ideally be considered in determining, for each employee or xe2x80x9ctechnician,xe2x80x9d the employee""s hourly pay rate for an upcoming pay period and the total compensation due the employee (collectively, xe2x80x9cTechPayxe2x80x9d), based on a current hourly pay rate, for the current pay period. Such factors include, for example, the number of xe2x80x9cunits,xe2x80x9d or, in the case of a dental lab, the number of xe2x80x9cteeth,xe2x80x9d worked on by the technician, the number of remakes that were the result of work performed by the technician, the amount of materials used by the technician to complete a particular function on a case as compared to other employees or some arbitrary standard, and the employee""s skill level with respect to the performance of a particular function.
In particular, for a single case, it would be desirable to pay a technician according to the actual number of units the technician worked on for the case. Additionally, if a technician is consistently responsible for an unusually high number of remakes, ideally, his or her pay rate for an upcoming pay period should be downwardly adjusted and vice versa. Similarly, if a technician has a high or low materials usage, his or her pay rate for a future pay period should ideally be adjusted accordingly.
Previous methods of calculating TechPay have been by hand or by computer systems. Clearly, performing the necessary calculations by hand is time-consuming and often inaccurate. Moreover, available computer systems fail to take into account one or more of the above-noted factors in computing TechPay. In particular, most systems, rather than tracking each tooth as an individual unit, thereby tracking the exact number of teeth, or units, produced by a technician, tracking the exact number of rejects that were counted against a technician, and tracking the amount of inventory used in production by a technician, assign an arbitrary unit value, which does not give an accurate count of actual units produced, and accordingly, no correlation of inventory usage can be tracked.
Therefore, what is needed is a system for tracking units produced, remakes caused, and materials used by each of a number of technicians in a production center and using this information, in addition to technician skill level information, to calculate an hourly pay rate for each technician for an upcoming pay period and the total compensation due each technician for a previous pay period.
The present invention, accordingly, provides a system and method for an integrated production tracking and pay rate calculation system. In a preferred embodiment, the production tracking and pay rate calculation, or production/pay, system of the present invention is a tool for helping control labor costs and for interfacing with payroll as well as a time clock. The system evaluates department and employee productivity by tracking production of all products and hours worked by all employees. The system is designed to enable calculation of a cost per unit based on multiple employee skill levels and production units per hour, per function, and per product type.
The summation of the cost per unit for all of the functions for one product, plus any overhead labor expenses, equates to a total labor cost for that product.
In a dental laboratory, for example, examples of overhead labor expenses might include labor and costs for external remakes, management, pick-up and delivery, auxiliary staff, and any department not provided for in the production/pay system.
The production/pay system is designed to allow each company to customize the various parameter thereof to fit their exact needs. A sample formula for calculating production pay per unit might be:
$_per product/unitxc3x97_% labor=$xe2x80x94
MINUS_% remake factor=$xe2x80x94
MINUS labor/unit for model work=$xe2x80x94
MINUS labor/unit for pick-up and delivery=$xe2x80x94
MINUS labor/unit for auxiliary staff=$xe2x80x94
MINUS labor/unit for management staff=$xe2x80x94
EQUALS dollars available for production pay $_/unit.
The dollars available for production pay are divided between all functions necessary for constructing the product. The amount allocated for each function depends on the skill and time required to complete each function.
The system is designed to allow each company the flexibility to assign multiple production values for each function based on employee skill levels. The system parameters are flexible in the configuration and setup to provide for a variety of companies and products.
The production/pay system enables the following functions to be performed:
1. tracking of all paid hours by production hours, non-production hours, and benefit hours;
2. tracking of employee productivity by function and/or by product;
3. tracking of internal remakes by reason code;
4. tracking employee production values and actual units produced by function separately;
5. tracking of production by employee and department;
6. tracking of hours worked by employee, department, division, and company;
7. tracking of overtime hours by employee, department, division, and company;
8. tracking of other hours, such as vacation, holiday, and sick-leave;
9. tracking of overtime as straight time or time and a half for calculating production rates;
10. allowing supervisors to designate production or non-production hours, as well as alter employee credits for internal remake purposes; and
11. tracking of remakes and including them in all reports.
Printed reports for the above-listed information may be company-defined.
In a preferred embodiment, to build a production/pay schedule, the user selects a product from a list of products and then selects all functions required to build the selected product from a master list of functions. For each function, the user specifies (1) the number of product minutes required to complete the function, plus any additional minutes for drying, curing, etc, before the product can be moved to the next function; and (2) what percentage of revenue is attributed to the function, thereby providing a basis for calculating department profitability. The percentages should add up to 100%. An employee is paid based on at what skill level he/she performs for this function. A payroll cost may be assigned for each skill level for each function.
A technical advantage achieved with the invention is that each function can be assigned an optimum remake percentage for each skill level. An employee can be rewarded or penalized in pay for deviations above or below this optimum.
Another technical advantage achieved with the invention is that it will calculate all materials actually used to perform each function. An average materials usage for all employees can be calculated, such that each individual employee""s materials usage can be compared to that average and his or her pay adjusted appropriately with reference to the deviation from the average.
Yet another technical advantage is that the remake tracking capability of the production/pay system affords the ability to deduct credit for work that was previously done if it does not meet quality control standards and the work has to be redone. In this manner, a technician is not paid twice for doing the same work.
Still another technical advantage of the present invention is that credit can be deducted from technicians that performed work along the way and did not catch the flaw that resulted in the failure to meet quality control standards. This ensures quality checking by all the technicians through the entire production life of the case, not just at certain predetermined check points.
Still another technical advantage of the present invention is that taking all of the above-noted factors into account results in the most detailed calculation of technician pay possible. Having the system perform all of the calculations, taking into account all of the factors with which a technician is involved (e.g., regular time worked, overtime worked, number of remakes, amount of inventory used, etc.) leaves no room for discrimination in determining a technician""s pay rate.